Emor
"ולא תחללו את שם קדשי ונקדשתי בתוך בני ישראל אני ה' מקדשכם" (כב:לב) בפרהסיא אפילו מצוה קלה יהרג ואל יעבור...אין פרהסיא פחותה מעשרה בני אדם פשיטא ישראלים בעינן דכתיב ונקדשתי בתוך בני ישראל (סנהדרין עד:).
The Rambam says that if someone does an aveirah bi’shat nefesh l’hachis, disdainfully, it is a violation of the lav of chillul Hashem, and if it is in front of ten people then it’s chillul Hashem b’rabim. So it’s clear from the Rambam that a person can violate chillul Hashem even b’chadrei chadarim. If it’s bifnei asarah then there is another inyan of chillul Hashem b’rabim, but it’s clear that the eztem din of chillul Hashem is even if someone is alone.
And middah tovah merubah. The Rambam continues that if one is poreish mei’aveirah without any extraneous motivating factor – not because he is afraid of someone or because he wants kavod – rather the only reason he is refraining is because of the Borei Olam, like the way Yosef Ha’Tzaddik was poreish mei’aveirah, harei zeh mekadeish es Hashem. So we see that doing a mitzvah or being poreish mei’aveirah purely l’sheim Shamayim is a kiyum of the mitzvah of Kiddush Hashem. Hafleh v’feleh!
L’fi this Rambam, the Mishna in Avos of “kol ha’mechallel sheim Shamayim b’seiser” is k’pshuto mamash. This is pshat in Rashi as well on the pasuk when he says that lo sechalelu means “do not do aveiros b’meizid.”
If a Goy is coercing him to do an aveirah, then it is contingent on there being ten Yidden there. Rav Moshe Feinstein said there are certain halachos that one simply must know. For example, forgetting yaaleh v’yavoh and the like, you have to know what to do. Some halachos you just have to be baki in them. Kiddush Hashem as well. One can never know if suddenly he will be thrust into a matzav of Kiddush Hashem. I am not saying this lightly; I am saying it with full koved rosh. One can never know. You think it couldn’t happen today? It could happen! A person could be around ten Yidden…and…Rachmana litzlan.
Rashi says further that one has to be moser nefesh not al daas that a neis will be done for him. The Tashbeitz Katan brings from the Maharam that when one does this, he will not feel any pain no matter what they do to him. Like the pasuk says hikuni bal chalisi, meaning it didn’t hurt. He drives the point home in an astounding manner from empirical evidence that we see that a person cannot hold himself back from screaming under any circumstances if he puts his finger in a fire and yet there are many people that are moser nefesh and do not scream oy or avoy. He lived in the time of the Crusades so mesiras nefesh was maasim b’chol yom for him.
Derech agav, you see from here that you need to look for proofs in the Torah. If you find one that fits with your experience, good. And if not, then reexamine your experience. Rav Dovid Soloveitchik learned this out from the Medrash that says Moshe Rabbeinu told Yehoshua to ask any questions that he may have before Moshe would die, and Yehoshua answered that he does not have any because he learned everything from Moshe and never missed a shiur as it says in the pasuk that Yehoshua never left the ohel of Moshe Rabbeinu. What is the pasuk needed for? They were both there! So you see that a raayah from the Torah is better than any empirical evidence!
I saw in one of the likutim a shailoh. If a Goy is coercing a Yid to do an aveirah in front of ten Yidden, do we say that one of them should run away so the person won’t have to be moser nefesh? Regarding the person himself, the Rambam is mefurash that if he can, he must run away. In the Rambam there is no optional mesiras nefesh (unlike other Rishonim). But what about the spectators that form the background of “b’soch Bnei Yisrael”? It’s an amazing chakirah. I was nisorer that you could kler this chakirah in the opposite direction. If there are only nine, can you call out “a tzenter!”? Is it assur to do? Maybe it’s a mitzvah to do.
Is the person being threatened counted as part of the minyan? That seifer assumes yes, but I was wondering about it. Chassan min ha’minyan, aveil eino min ha’minyan (ed. note: for birchas chassanim b’asarah and birchas aveilim b’asarah, Megilla 23b). Pashtus this is a chassan; mamash a chassan…efshar yeah.
Coming back, maybe you should round up a minyan for the opportunity to die al Kiddush Hashem?
In Maggid Meisharim, the Maggid is always giving the Beis Yosef a besorah that he is going to be zocheh to be killed al Kiddush Hashem. The velt’s kashya is that it didn’t happen. But what’s relevant to our discussion is that it sounds like he was telling him good news, something to look forward to. Lichora. Rabi Akiva said “masay tavoh l’yadi v’akayamenu!” He was looking forward to it. By b’chol nafshecha which is regarding the gimmel chamuros, there is no din of davka bifnei asarah, but by a regular situation of maaviro al ha’das, you could kler if one should round up a minyan.
B’pashtus, when talmidei Rabi Akiva asked him “ad kan?” it was his equanimity about which they were amazed. In Biur Aggados, though, the Gaon says something astounding. Two things that are astounding. He learns that pshat is that they were asking him why he stopped. The Gemara says it was zman Krias Shema, so they asked him why he didn’t finish. It’s his last mitzvah?! Just this pshat in their kashya is astounding! And what’s the teirutz? “Kol yamay hayisi mitztaeir” – how does that answer it? The Gaon explains that he wanted to join the asiyah of the mitzvah together with the kriah of the mitzvah (even though the mitzvah of mesiras nefesh is learned out from b’chol nafshecha, the ikar kabbalas ol malchus Shamayim is in the first pasuk of Shema Yisrael). Asiyah v’dibur b’yachad.
We do this inyan when we say Shema with teffilin on. Asiyah and kriah together. We should appreciate what we’re doing. And if there’s another opportunity to do it, one should look to do so, like by the “hareini mechavein l’kayeim mitzvas teffilin” when one says even just one pasuk, that is mistama enough to be mekayeim this inyan of combining kriah with asiyah.
There’s a haflidikeh Rabbeinu Bachayei who says in parshas Yisro that when Chazal are megaleh to us that a certain mitzvah is a segulah for a certain thing, one should not just do the mitzvah, but the zman asiyas ha’mitzvah is mesugal to be mevakeish rachamim for the segulah, and that one should take advantage of this. This is a mekor in Rishonim for the minhag of women to daven for banim talmidei chachamim when they light neiros Shabbos, as the Gemara in Shabbos says “ha’ragil b’ner havyan lo banim talmidei chachamim.” Rabbeinu Bachayei himself says it in the context of ner Chanukah, which is also included in that Gemara.
This is another reason to say what is printed in the siddurim. If you go with a siddur you can’t go wrong. You chap gevladikeh inyanim. There is a bakasha by tzitzis to be nitzol from the chitzonim which is the segulah of mitzvas tzitzis, and by teffilin there is a bakasha in the “hareini mechavein” for kedushas ha’machshava which is the segulah of teffilin as the Rambam says explicitly that the segulah of teffilin is that a person will have yiras Shamayim. By saying these bakashos one is mekayeim shnei inyanim nisgavim, combining asiyas ha’mitzvah with the kriah of the pesukim of that mitzvah, and also taking advantage of the eis ratzon to daven for the segulah of that mitzvah.
